Years: 1951 1952 1953 - 1954 - 1955 1956 1957

Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1954 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar).

Contents

1 Events 1.1 January events 1.2 February events 1.3 March events 1.4 April events 1.5 May events 1.6 June events 1.7 July events 1.8 August events 1.9 September events 1.10 October events 1.11 November events 1.12 December events 2 Undated 3 Births 3.1 January-February 3.2 March-May 3.3 June-August 3.4 September-December 4 Deaths 5 Nobel Prizes 6 Fields Medalists 7 Heads of state in 1954

Events

January events

• January 14 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator forming the American Motors Corporation
• January 14 - Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio.
• January 15 - Mau Mau leader Waruhiu Itote is captured in Kenya
• January 20 - The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations
• January 21 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut, by Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
• January 25 - The foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union meet at the Berlin Conference.

February events

• February 3 - Queen Elizabeth II is the first reigning monarch to visit Australia
• February 10 - President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam
• February 23 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• February 25 - Lt. Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser is made premier of Egypt.

March events

• March 1 - Nuclear testing: Officials announce that an American hydrogen bomb test had been conducted on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
• March 8 - PR Newswire founded in New York by Herb Muschel.
• March 19 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.
• March 22 - The London gold market reopens (it was closed in 1939).
• March 23 - Vietminh capture the main airstrip of Dien Bien Phu - French forces are partially isolated
• March 29 - C-47 with Genevieve de Galard on board is incapacitated on Dien Bien Phu runway
• March 30 - Canada's first subway opens in Toronto.

April events

• April 1 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado
• April 3 Vladimir Petrov defects from the soviet union and asks to seek asylum in Australia
• April 7 - Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference
• April 14 – Aneurin Bevan resigns from the Labour shadow cabinet
• April 22 - Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army for being "soft" on Communism.

May events

• May 1 - Taku (city in Japan) founded
• May 6 - Roger Bannister runs the first four minute mile
• May 7 - Construction started on Michigan's Mackinac Bridge.
• May 7 - Vietnam War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13).
• May 14 - Boeing 707 released after about two years of development.
• May 17 - US Supreme Court hands down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 347 US 483 1954
• [May 17]- Petrov Royal Commision begains it's inqury
• May 20 - Chiang Kai-shek is reelected president of the Republic of China by the National Assembly.
• May 20 - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty launches Belarusian language programming (see also Piotra Sych).
• May 29 - Menzies Government Re-elected for 4th Term

June events

• June 9 - McCarthyism: Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether Communism has infiltrated the Army
• June 14- Flag day, the words "under god" added to the pledge of allegiance
• June 15 - UEFA (the Union des Associations Européennes de Football) is formed in Basle, Switzerland.
• June 18 - Pierre Mendes-France becomes prime minister of France
• June 19 - The last regular-service streetcar operated by Twin City Rapid Transit runs in Minneapolis.
• June 27 - Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán steps down in a CIA-sponsored military coup–Operation PBSUCCESS–triggering a bloody civil war that would continue for more than 35 years.
• June 27 - The world's first atomic power station opened at Obnisnsk , near Moscow.

July events

• July 3 - End of rationing of meat ends all the food rationing in Britain
• July 7 - In Memphis, Tennessee, WHBQ becomes the first radio station to air an Elvis Presley record
• July 21 - First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam
• July 28 - Foundation of the Situationist International.
• July 31 - First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition.

August events

• August - First flight of a B-52 Stratofortress.
• August 6 - Emilie Dionne, one of the Dionne Quintuplets, dies of asphyxiation following a epileptic seizure at Sainte Agathe, Quebec.
• August 16 - Volume 1, Issue 1 of Sports Illustrated is published
• August 24 - President of Brazil, Getulio Vargas, commits suicide; he's been accused of conspiracy to murder an air force officer.

September events

• September 3 - The last new episode of the Lone Ranger is aired on radio after 2,956 episodes over a period of 21 years
• September 8 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established in Bangkok, Thailand
• September 9 - An earthquake centered on the city of Oleansville in Algeria - 1500 dead and thousands homeless
• September 11 - First Miss America Pageant broadcast on television
• September 14 - USSR tests nuclear weapon
• September 30 - USS Nautilus, 1st atomic-powered vessel (submarine), commissioned by the US Navy

October events

• October 11 - Vietnam War: The Viet Minh takes control of North Vietnam.
• October 18 - Texas Instruments announces the worldwide first Transistor radio.
• October 26 – Member of Muslim Brotherhood Abdul Munim Abdul Rauf tries to kill Gamal Abdal Nasser
• October 31 - Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.

November events

• November - The main immigration port-of-entry in New York Harbor at Ellis Island closes.
• November 3 - The first in the Godzilla series of films is released in Japan.
• November 10 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicates the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima memorial) in Arlington National Cemetery
• November 30 - In Sylacauga, Alabama, a 4 kg sulfide meteorite crashes through a roof and hits Ann Hodges in her living room after bouncing off her radio, giving her a bad bruise (this is the first known modern case of a human being hit by a space rock).

December events

• December 2 - Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 67 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
• December 24 - Laos becomes independent.

Undated

• Battle of Dien Bien Phu between French and Viet Minh forces in Indochina
• Boy Scouts of America desegregates on the basis of race
• Stop signs are changed from black-on-yellow to white-on-red
• Gerbils (Meriones Unguiculatus), brought to the United States by Dr. Victor Schwentker.

Births

January-February

• January 2 - Henry Bonilla, American politician
• January 6 - Anthony Minghella, director
• January 12 - Howard Stern, radio host
• January 22 - Peter Pilz, Austrian politician
• January 29 - Oprah Winfrey, American actress, talk show host, producer, and publisher
• January 29 - Yukinobu Hoshino, Japanese mangaka
• February 1 - Bill Mumy, actor, musician
• February 2 - Christie Brinkley, model
• February 6 - Argusto Emfazie, occultist, author
• February 12 - Philip Zimmermann, American cryptographer
• February 15 - Matt Groening, cartoonist
• February 18 - John Travolta, actor
• February 19 - Socrates, football player
• February 20 - Anthony Stewart Head, actor
• February 20 - Patty Hearst, socialite
• February 25 - John Doe, musician
• February 26 - Michael Bolton, singer

March-May

• March 1 - Ron Howard, actor, director, producer
• March 4 - Catherine O'Hara, actress
• March 13 - The Baroness Amos, British politician, first black woman in the UK Cabinet
• March 16 - Nancy Wilson (guitarist), band founder, singer, actress
• March 17 - Lesley-Anne Down, actress
• March 24 - Robert Carradine, actor
• April 7 - Jackie Chan, actor
• April 7 - Tony Dorsett, American football star
• April 9 - Dennis Quaid, actor
• April 10 - Peter MacNicol, actor
• April 15 - Seka, actress
• April 17 - Riccardo Patrese, Italian racing driver
• April 18 - Rick Moranis, actor, comedian
• April 29 - Jerry Seinfeld, comedian
• May 7 - Amy Heckerling, director
• May 8 - David Keith, actor

June-August

• June 9 - John Hagelin, physicist and U.S. Presidential candidates
• June 22 - Freddie Prinze, actor and comedian (d. 1977)
• June 26 - Steve Barton, actor
• June 27 - Ron Kirk, mayor of Dallas, Texas
• July 10 - Neil Tennant, British musician
• August 1 - Michael J. Badnarik, software engineer and U.S. Presidential candidates
• August 11 - Joe Jackson, British singer
• August 14 - Mark Fidrych, baseball player
• August 16 - James Cameron, film director
• August 20 - Al Roker, television broadcaster
• August 25 - Elvis Costello, singer
• August 26 - Pauline Hanson, politician

September-December

• September 13 - Steve Kilbey, Australian musician
• September 23 - Cherie Booth, wife of Tony Blair
• September 26 - Kevin Kennedy, baseball manager and television host
• September 30 - Barry Williams, actor
• October 1 - Martin Strel, Slovenian swimmer
• October 3 - Dennis Eckersley, baseball player
• October 9 - Scott Bakula, American television actor
• October 13 - Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli nuclear technician imprisoned for revealing Israeli secrets
• November 14 - Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State
• November 15 - Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland
• December 2 - Dan Butler, American actor
• December 14 - Ib Andersen, dancer
• December 14 - Alan Kulwicki, race car driver (d. 1993)
• December 20 - Michael Badalucco, actor
• December 26 - Susan Butcher, American dog-sled racing champion

Deaths

• January 18 - Sydney Greenstreet, English actor (b. 1879)
• February 12 - Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (b. 1896)
• March 31 - Edwin Howard Armstrong, electrical engineer and inventor
• May 6 - B.C. Forbes, financial publisher
• May 19 - Charles Ives, American composer
• June 7 - Alan Turing, mathematician
• July 11 - Henry Valentine Knaggs, physician and author
• July 13 - Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter
• July 14 - Jacinto Benavente, Spanish writer (b. 1866)
• July 29 - Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater
• August 24 - Getúlio Vargas, President of Brazil
• September 21 - Kokichi Mikimoto, pearl farm pioneer
• November 3 - Henri Matisse, painter
• November 29 - Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist
• November 29 - Dink Johnson, jazz musician (b. 1892)
• November 30 - Wilhelm Furtwängler, conductor
• December 8 - Claude Cahun, surrealist photographer and writer

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Max Born, - Walther Bothe
• Chemistry - Linus Carl Pauling
• Medicine - John Franklin Enders, Thomas Huckle Weller, Frederick Chapman Robbins
• Literature - Ernest Miller Hemingway
• Peace - The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Fields Medalists

• Kunihiko Kodaira, Jean-Pierre Serre

Heads of state in 1954

• President Juan Peron - Argentina
• President Getúlio Vargas - Brazil
• Prime Minister Louis Saint-Laurent - Canada
• Mao Tse-Tung - People's Republic of China
• Chiang Kai-shek - Republic of China
• Lt. Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser - Egypt
• Presidents Vincent Auriol and René Coty - France
• Chancellor Konrad Adenauer - Germany
• President Luigi Einaudi - Italy
• Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru - Japan
• General Francisco Franco - Spain
• Prime Minister Winston Churchill - United Kingdom
• President Dwight Eisenhower - United States